Bedtime Stories
by Auua Ytjoml
Summary: A quest for a prince, a stop for the night, a Merlin who isn't Merlin, and a maiden passing fair. A tale to delight the ears and astound the senses... if only the young prince would stop interupting!


"A way down deep in the greenwood oh!  
A rap-a-tap-a-tapping on a window  
A young blade and a rambling boy  
Across the wide river to go-

The warrior pauses as his companion cocks his head and runs forward. "Merlin! Wait up! These woods-"

He falls silent as the bumbling noise of the boy suddenly stills and a new rustle takes up strength to his right.

"-are filled with enchantment? mystery? life? danger?" The boy's black mane appears followed by the rest of his slim body. "Yes Arthur, all of the above and more but-"

"Few as fey wander free. Yes, so you've said." Arthur sighs. The young boy grated his nerves in a way his Merlin never had.

_A whole other realm with people just like us only different. A different path. A different tale. Wouldn't it be marvelous to read theirs?_

Or so Merlin had told him breathlessly the night before he disappeared leaving this fey child in his place. The new Merlin talked little and when he did he spoke in riddles. Arthur simply hadn't known what to do with the child, younger by at least a decade than his friend, but he'd been given little choice. A quest into the perilous lands required his attention and a day after he'd set out the young Merlin had proven his equal inability to follow orders by appearing at his side with a sideways grin and a knowing twinkle in his eyes.

"Well come on then." Arthur pushes on through the last bushes hiding the river gorge; the last obstacle before the perilous lands themselves.

"Well?" The boy darts up behind him and pauses at his side to take in the babbling pulse of the water filling the gorge nearly to the brim. Their eyes wander over the lush growth trailing up both banks and the small cottage nestled on their side and emitting the faint threat of riddles.

Arthur blinks. How had the land recovered so in the small time, mere years, since he'd first crossed this way? Where, for that matter, had the water come from, to fill a nye depthless gorge near to bursting?

"Well?" Merlin repeats himself and then answers his own question by gambling down the stream and disappearing once again into the surrounding trees. Arthur sighs. It could be hours before he returned or seconds. In the meantime he should see to their passage across."

_The fire pops suddenly causing the listener to jump. With a smile his elder merely taps him on the ear. "Pay attention now."_

"By and by, a young girl came  
Blinking sleep from her dark eye  
She put her finger to her lip  
So young and yet not so shy

"Hello?"

Arthur starts and turns guiltily from his attempted inspection through the cottage's dark windows. The girl is beautiful and as such gives gives him more reason to be wary. Still she probably lives here or at least knows the guardian. It would be foolish to offend her. He bows without taking his eyes off of her and she laughs.

"Courage! You have returned! Father did not expect you so soon."

Arthur smiles to hide his unease at her lies. "Either you are not talking of the man I believe you to be or he is not your father."

"Oh! Well I suppose I should not be too vexed with you for saying so. In troth he his my father in all but blood." She tosses her hair and adjusts her grip on the basket of herbs at her side. "Not that you've any right to ask. I only say as much as I did to ease your mind. Father says I am far too kind, but I am not one who tends towards riddles."

Arthur disagrees. Her very presence speaks to him of ancient power, older than he knows how to comprehend and an uneasy prospect in a maid who also radiates justice and the overturning of old wrongs. He shivers."

_The listener leans forward, eyes wide. "Is the maiden El-" _

_His elder shakes his head. "Remember your lessons on haste. Do not guess so readily. Now listen."_

"I tell to ye a rovin' tale  
Or recite to you a fable  
If you will give to me some bread  
And a little hot soup if you're able

Giving up on understanding the girl Arthur instead turns his mind towards shelter for the night. They will cross in the morning regardless, but if the guardian and his daughter would open their doors for the night it will be a much pleasanter affair.

Extending his arm Arthur turns his attention back to the girl. "May I help you in your task?"

His courteous bid is met with a smile and she hands over the basket. "Very well Sir Courage. This way if you will."

She leads him through the door and into the scullery where they spend the remaining daylight hanging her herbs from the scullery rafters. He only ever spies a glimpse of the dwarf who'd met him on his last venture here but the evening in enjoyable regardless. The Other Merlin reappears just as their work is finishing and, with a quick song like that of a forest bird, entices the girl into laughter. Soon after the three sit to a small meal of bread, toasted with cheese and herbs into a delicious fare that sends Arthur back for guilty seconds. The drink is nothing but pure water drawn straight, as far as Arthur can tell, from the river itself, but its sweetness belies its origin.

Soon enough Arthur and Merlin are escorted to low pallets set across the hearth. Arthur is asleep before the candles are extinguished."

_"I thought this was an adventure filled with love and enchantment?" The listener complains. "Where does the love come in? Surely King Arthur will not betray his Queen?" _

_His elder laughs. "No. He will not. But you forget the other man sleeping within the cottage." _

_The listener gawks. "Merlin?" The elder smiles knowingly._

"He laid her down in the greenwood o  
The squirrel and the deer did scamper  
He sang her the ancient roving tales  
The melody did enchant her

When Arthur awoke the next morning all within the cottage was silent save his own steady breathing. Lifting himself upright and sliding once more into what light armor he had chosen for this quest, he wanders outside. That Merlin would be missing is no surprise- not in his Merlin and most certainly not in this other one -and he can't begin to guess the comings and goings of the lady but their duel absence strikes something within him uncomfortably.

Strapping on his sword and taking one of the loaves of bread left by his head, presumably to break his morning fast, he strides around the clearing, intent on any recent sign of where either mystery might be found. A duel track, leading down stream catches his eye and he follows.

The path is not long. breasting another gentle roll in the landscape he immediately ducks back. Just ahead, in a clearing straight out of the bard's tales the boy and the girl, the other Merlin and the Guardian's daughter, lay tousled amidst a bed of moss. Though he can no longer see them, the wild tenor of Merlin reaches his ears, rising and falling unexpectedly in a language Arthur does not understand but recognizes as one of the old dialects.

Hurrying back to the cottage Arthur spends the rest of the morning reorganizing their packs and planning for the next leg of their journey. When he next sees the cheerful lady and fey warlock, he blushes red and refuses to look her in the eye."

The listener frowns. "I don't understand? What was is about the maiden and Merlin? Did King Arthur not approve of frat- frat-" "Fratinizing?" His elder laughs."Yeah, that, with someone who they don't know if they could trust? But I don't understand how singing to her could be dangerous..? His elder turns to stoke the fire hiding the slight blush that colours his own features. "That is an explanation for your father to give, not me." His listener frowns, pouts a moment and then shrugs. "Allright then. What happened next?"

"They bid farewell by the riverbank He looked long into her dark eye An otter splashed and quickly sank Greylag goose in the gray sky

Arthur stands impatiently on the shore as the strange boy and the the stranger girl exchange a long look that penentrates deeper than Arthur can see and longer than he can stand. Something splashes into the stream, breaking their gaze as she looks away. the boy steps out of the boat and in a moment the girl, the boat, and the cottage are gone and Arthur and his companion are alone."

_The Elder pauses in his tale and smiles. "Ahead of them stretch the lush forests of the Perilous Lands."_

_The young prince squirms in agitation. "You can't stop the story there!"_

_His caretaker merely shakes his black hair from his face and grins. "Yes I can and I will not continue till tomorrow. It is well past time for you to be in bed. Your Father expects you to be well prepared for your lessons after so many days away. You know well enough that Geoffary will not tolerate sleepiness."_

_"Yes Godfather." The little head dissapears into the blankets. A moment later it pops up again. "But if the other Merlin loved the maiden why didn't he stay with her? Or bring her back with him when he went home to his own world?"_

_Merlin smiles. "If you ever meet him feel free to ask. As it is he is the one person in this story I have never met. I cannot say."_

_Once again the young prince buries himself in his blankets and this time he does not stirr again. Merlin stretches, dampens the fire and nods to the knight on guard. Lying back on his own sleeping roll, he thinks back on the adventure as he remembers it. Of course he'd spent most of it in another world alltogether but he will never forget the scolding Arthur had given him upon his return... or the heat in his face when Arthur had, in punishment, told him gleefully of just what his counterpart had done with the lady Elora._

_Other than that embarassment, it's a good bedtime tale. Merlin is glad to share it with the result of the quest... the young foundling cum prince himself._

**Comments, Critiques etc. always welcome!**


End file.
